Amy Coney Barrett describes increased threats in plea for more Supreme Court security funding
Washington Examiner · RC · trust 66/100
Justice Amy Coney Barrett explained the increased security threats she has received in recent years, including a swatting incident at her home, to the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, as she and Justice Elena Kagan ask for increased security funds for the Supreme Court .
The Supreme Court has asked for a roughly $228 million budget for fiscal 2027, a 10% increase from the previous year’s budget, including $14.6 million to expand the justices’ personal protection by adding six more agents per justice. The two justices made their case to the House committee, hours before they were scheduled to make their case for increased funding at a similar Senate committee. Supreme Court justices testifying before Congress has become rare in recent years, with 2019 the last time two justices testified.
Barrett offered two personal stories illustrating the increased security threats the justices have faced in recent years. After a draft opinion of the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization leaked in May 2022, Justice Brett Kavanaugh had an assassination attempt on him at his home, and Barrett said her security detail during that time sent her home with a bulletproof vest.
“I carried it into my house, put it into my bedroom, dropped it down on a table, turned around, and my 12-year-old son was standing in the doorway of my bedroom, and he wanted to know what it was and why I had it,” Barrett said. “I didn’t know how to respond because maybe I lack imagination, but I didn’t expect that performing this service was going to put me in the position of explaining to my children what a bulletproof vest was and why I had to wear one.”
Justice Amy Coney Barrett on how threats have affected her family: "Maybe I lack imagination, but I didn't expect that performing this service was going to put me in the position of explaining to my children what a bulletproof vest was and why I had to wear one." pic.twitter.com/jEbrHwy6c0
She also discussed the swatting incident at her home earlier this year, saying one of her teenage sons “opened the door to go out with friends and saw in our street it was full of police cars who had responded to a false report of gunshots and raised voices in my home.”
“I was very, very grateful that I had Supreme Court police outside my home because they were able to stop and meet with — and explain — to the county police that it had been a false alarm, and so the police did not actually attempt to enter our home,” Barrett said. “Many of us, me included, have received threatening anonymous deliveries designed to intimidate and harass us.”
Barrett shared that the number of threats to Supreme Court justices was up 25% last year from the previous year, and is currently on track to increase 38% this year. Kagan also described how security threats have increased in the 16 years she has been on the high court.
“I didn’t have a security team of my own, and I was accompanied by security personnel only when I participated in work-related public events,” Kagan said, recalling how security was when she joined the court in 2010. “We began expanding our security program in earnest in 2017, initially at the behest of members of Congress. We engaged government and private industry experts to evaluate our needs on an ongoing basis. We started by expanding personal security beyond the chief justice, so that associate justices also received small security details, much too small, as it turned out.”
“When personal threats increased following the Dobbs leak, we expanded our residential security and threat assessment activities. Similarly, as online attacks grew in number and sophistication, we requested additional cybersecurity resources. Our strategy has been consistent across security functions, expand incrementally but effectively to meet evolving security challenges,” Kagan added.
Members of the House panel appeared receptive to the justices’ security concerns and their request for increased security funds in the judiciary’s fiscal 2027 appropriations.
Kagan returned to testify before Congress for the first time since appearing before the same House committee in 2019, while Barrett returned to Congress for the first time since her confirmation hearing before the Senate in 2020. Kagan and Barrett will also testify before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday at 2 p.m., again on the Supreme Court’s budget request for fiscal 2027.
The Supreme Court term ended on June 30, with final opinions being released in cases involving bans on biological males in women’s sports and President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship order . The high court will return for its next term in October, with that term set to continue through the end of June 2027.
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